A missed deadline for Iraq’s constitution

What happened

Iraq's Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds deadlocked this week over sharing power and dividing the nation's oil wealth, forcing the National Assembly to extend the deadline for drafting the country's new constitution. Despite pressure from the U.S. to wrap up a compromise, lawmakers unanimously agreed to give the drafting committee another week, in a vote that came 23 minutes before the original deadline of midnight, Aug. 15. 'œThe constitution should not be born crippled,' said Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Kurds demanded recognition of the self-rule they have exercised in the north since the Persian Gulf War in 1991, along with the right to secede. A faction of the Shiite majority said any federal system would have to give Shiites their own super province in the south. Sunnis said that would be unacceptable because it would cut them off from the country's oil wealth, which is concentrated in the Kurdish north and the Shiite south. Several negotiators said they doubted a week would be enough time to forge compromises. 'œThe differences are huge,' said Saleh Mutlak, a Sunni negotiator.

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What the editorials said

This delay is 'œno cause for celebration,' said The New York Times, but it was the only 'œresponsible and constructive' option left. Months of debate have done little to narrow the 'œyawning divisions' over a host of sticking points, including not just oil but the rights of women and the role of Islam in the government. Forcing matters 'œwould have left so many groups aggrieved that it would probably have pointed the way to open civil war.'

The stalemate has already cost Iraq and the U.S. dearly, said the New York Daily News. Every 'œminor bog-down' marks a victory for the terrorist insurgency, and strengthens rebel resolve to fight on. The negotiators now have one last chance. 'œThey cannot blow it again.' Cobbling together a just and fair constitution is 'œthe entire point of the Iraqi reconstruction.' If all sides don't bend a little before the extension expires, our troubles in Iraq are only beginning.

What the columnists said

The Kurds need to give some ground, said Edward Joseph and Michael O'Hanlon in The Christian Science Monitor. They want control over not just their land but the oil wealth concentrated in the northern city of Kirkuk. The Sunnis want Iraq's oil to be treated as a national resource, and there will never be stability unless that happens. Ninety percent of the insurgency's 'œactive fighters' are Sunnis. If the constitution leaves Sunnis 'œfundamentally marginalized,' their territory will become a 'œsafe haven for jihadists' for years to come.

But the Sunnis will have to swallow their pride for any compromise to work, said Bartle Breese Bull in The Wall Street Journal. They ran the country under Saddam Hussein and object to the very idea of federalism because it means that their authority will be confined to their sliver of central Iraq. But Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds lived 'œharmoniously' for centuries with a federal arrangement under the Ottoman Empire, and they can do it again. If Sunnis stand in the way, they will be 'œleft in an oil-less, landlocked Sunnistan of their own making.'

Still, said Larry Diamond in The New Republic Online, the 'œimpasse reveals the depth' of Iraq's divisions, as well as the enormity of the task the U.S. has taken on. The Bush administration put on a 'œbrave face' when the deadline passed, saying the horse-trading was merely the 'œdemocratic process' in action. That's one way to look at it. But 'œif a way is not found to accelerate or regenerate the constitutional momentum, the Iraqi people will be the losers, and the United States along with them.'

What next?